


Vanguard

by teroinreadsteroinwrites



Series: Brent [5]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-07-19 13:43:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7363552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teroinreadsteroinwrites/pseuds/teroinreadsteroinwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Heart Ache and Spark Break. Five years have passed since the events of Chicago, and instead of spending it getting married and going on my honeymoon and all the other newly wed crap, I spent it on the run. Am I the only one that thinks that's messed up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a teaser, but I promise the full length fic will be coming soon. I forgot how long Brent takes.

As I drove through the desert my eyes focused in on the silver band and its shiny blue stones. They sparkled in the light. I smiled at it, growing giddy as drove, feeling how close I was.

 

On the seat beside me, Jazzy sat recharging in his altmode, an iPhone 6+. I nudged him, waking him up.

 

“What?” he mumbled. Jazzy was not the easiest bot to pull out recharge, nor was he the nicest once you finally did. 

 

I didn’t let his attitude faze me, however. “We’re close.”

 

He perked up, transforming and crawling up on the dash. “How close?”

 

“Real close.”

 

My heart was beating and my spark thrumming with an excitement.

 

It had been six months of Jazzy and myself on our own. Six months of nonstop moves. Six months of shitty part time jobs. Six months of my Cybertronian half and my human half shifting and melding.

Whereas before I was more of a patchwork being with certain sections of my body were metal while others were flesh, now I was more cohesive. According to the last scan I had done on me. My bones were now entirely covered in cybertanium, my organs had adapted to the newer part of my Cybertronian physiology, and my blood was now infused with energon. While it was cool and convenient on one hand, it had not been easy. The constant change was painful and while it had let up recently, it had not yet finished. Six months was about to end thanks to one message.

 

_I was standing at the kitchen counter in my new shithole apartment, jamming a bowl of cheerios in my mouth, before I had to leave for work, when a high pitched frequency run in my commlink causing me to wince._

_“Son of a bitch!” I swore, trying to dial it back. Jazzy seemed to be a similar state, trying to regulate his systems, where he was sitting on the counter. The ringing finally ceased and a voice that I was afraid that I would never hear again came over it._

_“Calling all autobots_

_Calling all autobots”_

_“Jazzy!” I squealed._

_The small bot looked up at me blue eyes wide with shock, relief and excitement._

_“Text, Laura. Tell her that I appreciate all that she’s done for me, but my great aunt Bertha died, and I have to go to the funeral and in all honestly am never coming back._

_I quickly threw what little I had unpacked back into my bag, and picked up Jazzy on the way. “We’re going on a road trip, bud,” I said, shutting and locking the door behind me._

For as excited as I was, I was also terrified. Who the fuck was left? We were being hunted and with success on the part of our hunters. Our numbers were dwindling.

 

I nearly jumped for joy at the sight of Optimus sitting there in his altmode. Hound was there, which excited me. He had arrived while we were still in N.E.S.T. purgatory. When we didn’t know if it was going to continue or if we were going to be disbanded.

 

There was a green bot that I had never met before, but I identified as Crosshairs. Same went for Drift.

 

Nothing compared however to finally seeing that ‘67 Camaro that I loved so much, sitting there. Bee activated his holoform. I stopped the car, snatched Jazzy up and sprinted over to him. He met me half way, picking me up and spinning me around. In the process, I had accidently buried Jazzy in the back of Bee’s jacket.  Oops.

 

“Who is that?”

 

“Is anyone going to say anything about the whole human thing going on here?” someone else asked.

 

“I fucking missed you,” I said, pressing my lips to his.

 

There were retching sounds.  When Bee and I broke apart, I realized that if Jazzy would’ve actually required oxygen he would’ve been dead.

 

“Sorry, bud.” 

 

I let him go, and released Bee. “Go ahead and transform,” I told him.

 

He smirked at me, holo fizzing out. The first whirl of his transformation caused my grin to widen. He walked over to the others and then put a digit down for Jazzy to climb on. Then he picked me up, setting me on his shoulder. 

 

“Again. Who the hell is she?”

 

“Bee’s femme.” I smiled down at Ravage, who strode out from behind the green one. The second she was visible, Jazzy was clambering over to her, climbing up on to her back.

 

“ _I see how it is._ ”

 

I chuckled, rubbing Bee’s face plates. “You’re still his favorite,” I assured him.

 

“Brent and Bee,” she greeted. “Primus, I’m glad to see you two are alright.

 

“Back at ya Rav.”

 

 “Human,” green repeated.

 

“Cool it Samuel L. Jackson. There aren’t any mother fucking snakes on this mother fucking plane.”

 

As soon as the last word left my mouth, Optimus opened his doors and three people got out.

 

“Or maybe there are,” I backtracked.

 

As soon as the three were clear, Optimus transformed, and wasted no time getting down to business.

 

“Humans have asked us to play by their rules. Well, the rules have just changed.”

 

Of course the happy reunion couldn’t last.

 

“Human beings, a bunch of back stabbing weasels,” Hound said, shedding the various weapons he war.

 

“Hound, find your inner compass. Loyalty is but a flower in the winds of temptation.”

 

“What the hell are you saying?”

 

“It’s a haiku.”

 

“Cute the crap, before I shove a grenade sown your throat.” Hound pulled a grenade and reached for Drift only to have a sword at his throat.

 

“Try it. You’ll be dead.”

 

“Oh pull it. Please do it.”

 

“Looks like a samurai and talks like a fortune cookie. I can’t help, but find this a tad bit racist,” I said.

 

“ _You know what? It’ll save us so much time_ ,” Bee played throwing his hands up.

 

I glared at him holding on. “I know it’s been a while since I’ve been up here, but can you please refrain from dropping me?”

 

He at least was smart enough to look apologetic.

 

“Well raise your hand if you’re thoroughly disenchanted with our little Earth vacation.”

 

‘ _I’m disenchanted with that fucking trench coat,_ ” I thought.

 

“So who’s the stowaways?” Crosshairs asked, pulling a gun on the three full blown humans.  Hound joined him.

 

 “Reminds me of when I first me Hide,” I said, fondly.

 

“Whoa. What’s with the guns?”

 

“Both of you, stop. They risked their lives for mine. We owe them.”

 

I easily navigated my way down Bee, landing on the ground with a thud. I walked over to the three. 

 

“I’m Brent,” I introduced myself, putting a hand out to shake. “I’ve been involved in all this craziness since the fucking beginning. Please ignore the bots, when they’re like this. They’re partially paranoid, partially trying to show off their weapons.”

 

“Cade,” the oldest said, tentatively shaking my hand.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Unlike you insparked imbeciles, Brent is trying to make them feel more at ease, by displaying some type of civil behavior.”

 

“Listen, here decepticon-“

 

“She is not a con,” I snapped.

 

I turned back to the crew. “This is my daughter Tessa,” he introduced the girl. “And that’s Lucky Charms,” he jerked his thumb back towards the guy.

 

“His name is Shane,” Tessa corrected, glaring at her father. “And he’s my boyfriend.”

 

“Now I get it. I guess I better not make a magically delicious joke then.”

 

“Please don’t,” they chorused.

 

“Well, clearly you fucked up somewhere along the line, so since you’re here, you might as well get a proper introduction to the crew.”

 

“That,” I said starting with Ravage, “Is Ravage. The little one climbing her face plates is Jazzy. Jazzy is mine and Bee’s.” I pointed up at Bee.  “This is Bumblebee, my fiancé.” I held up my hand and wiggled my fingers, so that the ring sparkled. “Hound, he liked things that go boom, Drift, Crosshairs, and you already know Prime. Any questions so far?”

 

“You’re engaged to a giant alien robot?”

 

“Problem with that, Lucky Charms?” I asked, my voice threatening.

 

“None. None at all,” he said, taking a step backwards.

 

“Good,” I walked back to Bee, leaning against his ped.

 

“I- Do you think we could set up camp or something. Find a place to sit, before we start sharing intel or whatever? This is a lot to take in.

 

“I second that,” I chimed.  

 

 We set up a camp for the night, all of us settling around a fire.

 

We were broken off into our own little groups for the most part. Drift sat quietly, sharpening his blades. I was sitting front of Bee, Jazzy on my lap. Ravage was to my right. Hound and Crosshairs were arguing about something and based on the glances that kept coming my way, I was pretty sure I knew what it was.

 

Bee’s scanners were on me. He and Ravage were discussing my current situation over the comm. I had turned it off and tuned it out.

 

“Brent, this must’ve been very hard to endure,” Ravage noted.

 

“Yeah, I can’t say that it’s been fun, no.”

 

“According to my scans, it’s almost complete a few more weeks and it’ll be over.”

 

“Thank fuck.”

 

“And you went through this on your own?”

 

I nodded. “We had to split some months ago.”

 

Bee winced. I sighed. I knew he blamed himself, but there was nothing that we could do. We’d gotten found and our best solution was to split. “I’m sure the strain on the bond didn’t help the healing process either.”

 

“So there are no signs of any others?” Prime asked.

 

I shook my head no. “None that I have come across. Of course that doesn’t mean that the others haven’t been contacted, but I wasn’t gonna risk them to ask.”

 

“Nada.”

 

“They’re picking us off one by one.”

 

“We’re the pathetic dirty five and you make six.”

 

The talk of our numbers was depressing, so I tuned into Cade, Tessa and Shane’s conversation.

 

“So that’s our best case scenario, autobot witness protection?”

 

“Hey Speed Racer, you’re free to leave at any time.”

 

“Well, for the record, Super Dad, I’m not hiding with you. I’m hiding with that big guy.” He pointed at Optimus.

 

I snorted. “Optimus is the best of us, is essentially everyway unless you count the opposite of everything good, because then we totally have him beat. However, I should let you know that he died once, and then I had to haul my ass through Egypt for some fucking pixie dust to bring his ass back to life and died in the process, so I would just take that into consideration.”

 

“You died?”

 

“What you mean like Nikki Sixx clinically dead for two minutes-“

 

“How long was I dead for? Bee?”

 

He was too busy arguing with Drift.

 

“Sensei, with your fate unknown, Bumblebee has held command.”

 

I think held command was over stating it. All Bee did was tell everyone to fucking scatter.

 

“Despite his complete and utter lack of anything resembling warrior discipline.”

 

I could feel Bee getting pissed off, but in all honesty, I was kind of amused. It was fun to watch Bee get riled up.

 

“He is like a child.”

 

“ _This child is about to kick your ass._ ” Bee got up and stomped over to Drift.

 

“Get ‘im, Bug!” I cheered, laughing.

 

“He brings us shame.”

 

Bee stomped on Drift’s sword, knocking it out of the way.

 

“Cage fight,” Hound called.

 

“My money’s on Drift,” Crosshairs called.

 

“Same,” Hound agreed.

 

“I got the bug,” Ravage chimed.

 

I looked at her surprised. Ravage wasn’t exactly one to take part in our stupid bets, especially on the side of the younger of the two,

 

Bumblebee started off strong, but eventually Drift got the better of him.

 

“What’s the matter with them?” Tessa asked.

 

“A bit of stir crazy, bit of helplessness, a lot of grief and frustration,” I responded.

 

“Am I the lone sage who sees through this puppy dog eyes act? It is beneath you.”

 

“Yes. I’ve been waiting for them all to dispatch each other, so that I could take charge with no trouble at all.”

 

I looked at Crosshairs like he’d lost his fucking mind. “I’m sorry who in the fuck do you think is gonna follow you?”

 

“No one. Just me reporting to me.”

 

“Sure looks like you’ve been missed,” Cade said to Optimus.

 

I shrugged. “They don’t really respect authority well,” I explained.

 

“ _Because you do?_ ” Bee teased.

 

“Okay. We don’t respect authority well, myself included.”

 

“Autobots, lock down is hunting us and humans are helping,” Optimus stated.

 

“Well, I don’t know what the fuck Lockdown wants, but I would like to note that Chicago was a cluster fuck, and that if I wasn’t there and didn’t understand that it was human bull shit that caused it to happen, I would also be a pissed off human. Not as pissed off as the others, because ultimately everything had to happen to prevent Megatron and Sentinel from taking over the planet, but still a lot of people died.”

 

 “You talk like you’re one of us,” Crosshairs chided.

 

“Listen I may not be an “autobot,” but I am family, you ignorant fuck, and unlike you, who apparently wants to watch the world fucking burn, which I’ve seen already, it’s not pretty, I want everyone to get their shit together. Now I remember a time, where we could all pick at each other and not kill each other. Can we try that? Chill on the murderous rage, and listen to what the fuck Optimus is trying to say.”

 

“As I was saying we need to know why.”

 

“Listen, I don’t know about why, but I have an idea about who.”

 

Cade hooked up some tech that he had stolen from the people hunting us and Drift projected it onto a rock face. The images were disgusting and horrifying.

 

“Look what happens here,” Cade focused in on one scene.

 

“Oh that’s Leadfoot,” Hound said sadly.

 

I shook my head. “Even that asshole didn’t deserve that.”

 

“Savages.” He put his helmet over his heart in a tribute.

 

“They rip them apart and later this this truck comes to haul them off, KSI, Kinetic Solutions. Defense Aerospace, government contracts. They designed this drone.”

 

“So these government guy just hunt you down and then pass you off to this KSI?”

 

“The company’s headquarters’ in Chicago,” Cade told us.

 

I groaned. “Of fucking course it is.”

 

“That’s where they could have been taken.”

 

“No way to get inside without a battle.”

 

“That’s where you’re wrong, Hound.” I smirked and then looked at Tessa, Cade and Shane. Jazzy chirped from my shoulder.

 

“What are we just supposed to be partners now?” Tessa asked.

 

“Alright. Alright. I think I’ve gotten this speech down, I’ve given it so many times.”

 

I got up to talk face to face with Tessa. “In every situation, there are choices that we have to make. When I was in high school, I decided to get in a car. When we ended up in Egypt I decided that I was willing to die so that others could live. And when I was in Chicago, I decided that I was going to die standing rather than live on my knees. Now you have a choice. Tessa, you can quit being a little cry baby bitch, get your shit together and help us, or or and this is a big or, you can continue to wallow in yourself pity, hinder us all, jeopardizing not only us, but yourself and end up either dead or in jail for the rest of your obnoxious existence. If I were you, I’d pick getting my shit together.”

 

I stepped back and returned to my spot.

 

“Autobots, I have sworn to never kill humans.”

 

“Big mistake-“

 

“But, when I find out, who’s behind this he’s going to die.”

 

I felt a sick sense of satisfaction creep up my spine. Vengeance was going to be sweet.

 

We agreed to recharge in the desert that night with the agreement that after a nice recharge we would all head out in the morning. Be had transformed, and now I was sitting in his lap in the back seat, while Jazzy slept in the passenger’s seat. My head was resting on his shoulder, one arm wrapped around his neck, where it connected with the other. Bee’s arms were wrapped around my waist, fingers tapping against my hip. We sat there in silence for a while, before I broke it.

 

“So I have a question.”

 

“ **:.It’s bad. It’s bad. Really bad** ,” he commed.

 

“You could’ve at least let me ask,” I teased.

 

“ **:.You worry too much about me.** ”

 

“You need to be worried about. You like to go and do dumb shit.”

 

He chose not to argue with me, instead asking me how I was feeling.

 

“Sometimes bad. Sometimes good. Sometimes great. It just depends on the day.”

 

“ **:.So nothing’s changed?** ”

 

I shook my head.

 

He cycled his vents.

 

“No who worries too much?”

 

“ **:.I’ll always worry about you.** ” His hold on me tightened ever so slightly.

 

“Holy hell, I missed you,” I mumbled.

 

He responded by kissing my temple.


	2. Chapter 2

When we got to Chicago we found an abandoned church to hide out in. It was massive and had a garage door, so it was the perfect hideout for three full sized bots.

There was some left over furniture and boxes of clothes, blankets and canned foods that must’ve been donated to the church for something.

That was a lucky break. We still needed supplies, but at least now it wasn’t severe.

A not so lucky break was the fact that my body decided now was as good a time as any to surge in the fusion process, so I was in a lot of pain, and by a lot of pain, I mean I had been laying on of the couches, writhing in agony with only a few moments of lucidity throughout the day. According to Bee and Ravage, the organs in my chest were the ones currently undergoing the change. Of course I already knew that because of the searing pain. It was like having molted metal poured onto your organs. 

Bee had transformed down. Currently in his holo, he was hovering, attempting to wipe away the sweat which was pouring off of me. Jazzy was sitting beside my head. Optimus and Hound were concerned, but also focused on their strategy for getting into KSI. 

Cade had determined that Shane and Tessa were in charge of stealing food and the essentials. If I had not been in a state of living hell. I would have gone with. No need to steal food, when you’ve stolen a credit card. By the time the plan was made though, the pain was starting to subside. Not enough for me to do anything other than lay there, but enough for me to think clearly. 

“Bee,” I croaked out. 

He kneeled beside me. “Take them,” I told him. “And Rav, go with.”

Ravage stood up immediately, and transformed into Suzuki Hayabusa. Her holoform appeared on top.

Bee went to protest.

I looked to Ravage for help.

“She’s stabling out. Her pain is subsiding. She will be fine until we return,” she said.

Bee was not convinced. 

She rolled her eyes.

“You’re hovering is not helping. Let’s go. We can find her some medication to help deal with the pain,” she said.

Bee was still reluctant. “Get out of here,” I told him, attempting to smile. It came out as a grimace. I still felt like I was dying, but it was a different death now, a slow methodical one.

They left and were shortly followed by Cade and Optimus who needed to get a couple of ids to get us into KSI.

“How you doin, Lil Lady?” Hound asked.

I rolled my head over to look at him. “Like I swallowed a grenade.”

He chuckled. “When I was with the Wreckers in the early days of the war…”

Once Hound got started there was no stopping his war stories. He was still going, when the others finally returned hours later. By that point, I was sitting up. No longer was I feeling the pain of the fusion, just the after effects. I was sore as all hell, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t deal with. I was gross, but functioning.

Optimus and Cade returned first. Optimus seemed relieved to see me somewhat back to normal. Cade was for sure.

“What the hell’s going on with you?” he asked me.

“Some fucking bull shit,” I replied, not bothering to elaborate. “Don’t die,” I advised.

Bee, Shane and Tessa were next, dumping the contents of their haul on the table. I got up and pursued through it.

I lifted a t shirt. “Next time heart attack or not, I’m going. You two suck.”

“Yeah,” Cade agreed. “Protein powder, candles and mouthwash. Glad we got that.”

“Hey, I like to be fresh, when I’m making out with your daughter.”

I laughed, which was not the best thing to do considering the chest pain. Cade took the mouthwash and hurled it across the room. “Yeah that’s not happening ever.”

“Ever?”

Bee popped his trunk. Just as he did so, Ravage showed back up.

“Where the hell did you go?” I asked her.

She placed a bottle of pills in my hand. “You stole me morphine?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Sweet!”

“Whoa. Isn’t that dangerous?” Cade asked.

I snorted. “I couldn’t overdose if I tried. I know. I tried.”

As soon as anything threatened the balance of my organic half the Cybertronian half immediately kicked in to correct it and protect me. I read the dosage instructions and then stashed them for later use. Aleve would do for now. Which luckily was in the bags the Ravage was pulling from Bee’s trunk.

“When the hell did you get that?” Shane asked.

“While you two were blundering through the store like idiots, I took the most effective path to gather and purchase the proper supplies,” she sneered.

“With what?”

She lifted a credit card.

Both Tessa and Shane groaned in frustration, while I popped my Aleve and started on a baby wipe bath.

I dug through my bag of stuff and changed. When I returned, Tessa and Shane were now cuddling on the couch, while Optimus and Cade were giving us one last run down of the plan. 

“Chicago KSI headquarters is like a fortress. I’m gonna find a way into their top secret military wing. Find something to blackmail this company and the government. We’re gonna get our freedom back. A couple times a day these guys are moving in vehicle shipments to KSI for something called scanning. Major security all over, so our best shot at getting in is a back classified research entrance. I’m gonna drive in with Bee tomorrow morning. Crosshairs, you’re going to drop Brent off at the front gate.”

I nodded. ”Id?” I asked.

Cade slid it over to me. “Bee says you got this.”

The woman on the id looking nothing like me, but that was okay. I could work with it. 

As it turned out a key factor of my being technoorganic is that my body would change to develop. Like evolution, but instead of a beak or extended canines over hundreds of years of breeding, it usually took about two months for my body to dreaded some new part or piece in reaction to whatever my needs were. I hadn't noticed it early on, because everything was okay, but when we had to run and we started living on the road my body change to accommodate the lifestyle more.

Tessa and Shane weren’t paying attention instead focused on each other. The pair shared a kiss and Cade cleared his throat. “Excuse me. There’s no smooching in front of me.”

“You’re so square. Who even says smooching?”

Optimus crossed his arms over his chassis. 

Cade shook his head. “I tell you, no respect. It’s just impossible sometimes.”

“Yeah, I went through that with Bumblebee.”

“Not surprising,” I chimed.

“No wonder you too get along so well,” Ravage chimed.

“You’ve developed quite the sense of humor since I saw you last. I like it.”

“Just wait until you have to go through it with Jazzy,” Optimus said.

“I’ve got time,” I told him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘They’re not in control of that fucking thing,’ I realized. This was bad. If they weren’t in control of Galvatron then who the hell was?

“I’m just saying you look like an idiot,” I said to Crosshairs.

 

“I really do not like you.”

 

“Really? I never would have guessed. Listen lots of people don’t like me. My own parents never liked me. I don’t care if you like me.” 

 

“Whatever. Just get out.”

 

“Thanks for the ride, Sam,” I said getting out in front of KSI. I swiped my id and headed into the building.

 

“:.Ready, bud?” I asked Jazzy.

 

“:.Yep.”

 

Immediately, he got to work on hacking into their server.

 

‘Now if I was a super high tech company, where would I hide my outdated files?’ I wondered.

 

I saw a guy with an empty mail cart and followed him figuring that it was a good a start as any. He got on an elevator. We went down to the second sub-basement. There was the mail room and a sign that read archives.

 

I smirked. “Bingo.”

 

Of course it was locked. I scanned my badge, but was denied apparently Karen Shelley didn’t have the permissions to get in there.

 

“:. I need you to make me disappear bud.”

 

“:.Cameras are down.”

 

I picked the lock with my blades and entered, quickly shutting the door behind me.  My moment of smugness was disrupted by annoyance.

 

“:.Wanna tell me why you’re pissed off?” I commed.

 

“:.Stinger, like Bumblebee, but better in every way,” he sneered. “:.Slag! Fragging slag!”

 

“:.Still not making sense, Bug.”

 

“:. They’re trying to make us,” he explained.

 

“:.Like their own versions?”

 

“:. Like their own fragging, ridiculous, stupid, bull shit, slag versions of us.”

 

“:.Did you cause a scene?”

 

“:.No.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “:.Yeah. I’m gonna call bullshit on that one. Just be careful. Lucky Charms was shaking like leaf this morning. You draw attention to him and we’re fucked.”

 

I continued digging. I pulled out a set of records from one of the cabinets. It had the most security, so I figured that it was probably the most important.  I filed through it.

 

“:.Guys,” I commed everyone. “:.KSI is partnered with Cemetery Wind. They took the NEST funding and transferred it over to them after we were disbanded. They’re the ones hunting us. I flipped through it. In exchange for help strengthening the nation’s defense against any future alien attacks, KSI was granted all of the remains of any defeated decepticons including those from the attack on Chicago.”

 

“:.Then why are they hunting us?”

 

“:.Maybe they’ve gone rogue,” I pondered.

 

The door opened and I immediately spun around.

 

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing in there?” a guy asked.

 

“I’m Karen,” I said. “Um… do you work in the archives? I’m so lost here. I’m from accounting. My computer’s down for maintenance and I can’t seem to find the numbers from our acquisition of Beats by Dre.”

 

“While it’s certainly not in there,” the guy said, snatching the file out of my hand and moving to shove it back in the cabinet.

 

“Sorry dude,” I muttered, slamming his face into the metal, knocking him out cold. I took the file and shoved it under my shirt, before letting out scream and running to the door.

 

The guy from the mail room came running, stopping, when he saw man on the ground.

 

“He fell and hit his head,” I lied, trying to act panicked.

 

“Go call first aid,” he said, kneeling next to the guy.

 

Once I was in the elevator, I was hit hard with Bee’s anger and sadness.

 

“:.Bug?”

 

“:.They’re melting, Jazz.”

 

“:.Brent, get Cade,” Optimus barked.

 

The elevator door opened and a team of security guards walked in. “Don’t try to resist,” one said.

 

“We’ve got your friend,” the other snapped.

 

I slumped defeated.

 

They each grabbed an arm and hit the button, taking us up to one of the conference rooms, where I saw Cade sitting with none other the owner of KSI and some old guy that I had never seen before.

 

They tossed me in the chair next to him. Cade was pleading for some type of representation. “-protect my family. Not from your company, from the government.”

 

“Mr. Yeager, who do you think I work for?” the older man asked.

 

“So, you’re the one in charge of Cemetery Wind?” I asked.

 

“Ms. Shelley,” he said. “Or should I call you Ms. DeMarco? Rather impressive disguise you got there,” he said.

 

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” I replied, deactivating my holo projector, so that I looked like myself again.”

 

“I get it. You’re trying to protect your family, and you are trying to avenge those things, who you seem to think are your family. That’s admirable. I’m trying to defend the nation from the alien war. We’ve had a taste of what that looks like and we are not going to tolerate another.”

 

“By getting rid of your strongest asset? Because that makes a ton of sense.”

 

He ignored me. “There is a version of this conversation, where you get to go back to your barn, your daughter gets to graduate with honors and life as you know it will go on, and you” he turned to me. “Get to live, even if it’s in a correctional facility for the rest of your life. Neither of you have any idea of what you’re involved with here.”

 

I didn’t know what I was involved with? Me? I, who had been there through everything that had happened on Earth since Optimus and the others showed up, was clueless? That was fucking rich.

 

“What’s the other version of this conversation, the one where you send in your hired help to murder my little girl? Or are you gonna man up and do it yourself?”

 

“What’s your preference? I’m gonna ask you this once. Where is Optimus Prime?”

 

There was a large crashing noise, gun fire and alarms started going off.

 

“He’s right fucking here,” I said, shoving the table back into the guy, pinning him between it and the wall.  I transformed my arm and fired into the glass behind us. Drift was bringing Bee up. “And so is our ride.”

 

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” 

 

I transformed it back into my servo and shoved Cade into Bee’s outstretched arm, before jumping on to him and clinging to his plating.

 

“What the hell?” Cade screamed.

 

“I’ll explain later.”

 

Once we were outside, Bee dropped down transforming with both Cade and I inside. He picked up Shane and Tessa and we fled.

 

“What the hell is this?” Shane yelled freaking out.

 

“You’re a robot?” Tessa asked.

 

“Short version. I tried to help save Optimus. I died. Primus, their goddess, revived me as a techno-organic.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“Means she’s half human, Tess,” Cade explained, staring at me.

 

I shoved his face. “Still the same bitch that I was before, quit fucking staring.”

 

“Bug, where’s OP?”

 

“ _Enroute._ ”

 

I nodded, taking a deep breath to bring me down. The others caught up to us and I felt a lot better.

 

That was until I noticed explosions up ahead. I groaned.

 

“Dad?!” Tessa yelled, worried.

 

“Why the fuck can’t we get away clean just once?” I asked no one in particular.

 

“That’s it! That’s- Those are their prototypes, Stinger and Galvatron.”

 

“Really, Cade? I never would’ve guessed,” I snipped. “Jazzy, do not leave my pocket,” I warned him.

 

Their knockoff stood and aimed at us, before firing missiles.

 

“ _Hold on to your butts,_ ” Bee played.

 

If I wasn’t so caught up in thinking about how I hadn’t missed this part of the gig, I would’ve rolled my eyes. Every one spun around and started high tailing it the other way. Naturally, we were pursued. Stinger was right behind us. I could feel Bee’s anger rising.

 

“We gotta haul ass, Bee! Come on!”

 

“Listen, this is not the first time we’ve been through this shit. Have some faith dude. They’re probably feeding it commands. Jazzy, can you intercept or block their signal.”

 

“I can try.”

 

“That’s all I ask, Baby Bot.”

 

I looked back over my shoulder and saw them prepared to fire more missiles. “I lied. I gotta ask that you do it faster.”

 

“I’m in from earlier, but I can’t interfere. I can only here.”

 

“Well patch it through. If we know their game plan, we know how to counter.”

 

The knockoffs fired another round of rockets. Jazzy played the audio.

 

“ _Misfire! Misfire! Misfire! Misfire!_ ”

 

“ _System failure, Galvatron just fired four rockets._ ”

 

“Whoa! They’re shooting at us!”

 

‘ _They’re not in control of that fucking thing_ ,’ I realized. This was bad. If they weren’t in control of Galvatron then who the hell was?

 

All the bots avoided the rockets. The rockets did not avoid he lumber truck ahead of us. It spun, blocking the road, keeping the bots from simply driving through. I buttoned the pocket that Jazzy was in, while Cade and Shane just repeatedly screamed ‘whoa’ as if that was really going to change the outcome of anything.

 

Optimus transformed and jumped over it. Bee used the wreckage as a spring board during his transformation, throwing Cade, Tessa, Shane and me to Optimus.

 

Now I had been through this before yes. That being said it was still terrifying, and I would’ve been happy to never ever have repeated the experience it again. So yes, I screamed like a bitch.

 

Optimus transformed down with us inside.

 

“I fucking hate that.”

 

Shane stuck his head out the window to look behind us.

 

“If you want to keep that head on your shoulders, then you better get it the fuck inside,” I barked.

 

Optimus transformed throwing us out again. While Cade, Shane and I landed to the side of the road in the grass. Tessa rolled behind Optimus, who engage Galvatron.

 

Through Jazzy, Joyce was demanding that they make Galvatron fight.  Shane was helping people out of the Jeep that had just gotten fucked up, and Cade was focused on Tessa. She managed to move, however as soon as she hit the grass, Optimus was thrown her way.

 

I shook my head feeling really bad for everyone if I was ever this useless. I ran over to her. Optimus had the advantage, at least for a moment. He ran his sword through the human made mech’s chest. Galvatron managed to use that closeness to his benefit, getting a hold of prime and slamming him to the ground.

 

When Optimus hit the ground debris flew everywhere including at Tessa and myself. I shoved her into the open car door so that she wouldn’t get hit the debris coming at us. Unfortunately for me that motion put me right in the cross fire. It lodged itself in my neck, which sucked. It totally sucked. It hurt like hell and caused me to yell in agony. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the red that was dripping from my neck onto Tessa’s leg.  The world began to spin and I was from hunching over to falling on top of the panicked girl.

 

“Brent? Brent!” she screamed.

 

I wanted to say something. That I would be fine, that she needed to shut the hell up and not draw attention to us, but I couldn’t do anything other than groan at the wave of vertigo and the pain of the shrapnel rubbing against the metal vertebrae in my neck. I wanted to pull it out, but it’s very hard to do, when you’ve fainted.

**Author's Note:**

> So somethings. There are a few things that I know are going to be kind of weird, because I changed them.  
> 1.) Ratchet does not die.   
> 2.) I bring someone else in just to kill them in Ratchet's place. It's not a decision that I made lightly. I was sad. Don't kill me.  
> 3.) I keep some other bots around and I know it ruins this idea that they're the only ones left, but I they're my favorites and I've kept them around for too long to be able to kill them. Sorry?


End file.
